✈️ Meta's Threads: Bust or Game Changer?

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Threads vs. Twitter: Why Meta's
Latest Launch is Making Waves in the Social Media World

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Each week, I reflect on lessons learned growing my newsletter + podcast: the good, the ugly, and everything in-between.

What I Wish I Knew Before I Became a Creator

9 months ago, my Twitter or '𝕏' was dead — RIP.

This week, I hit 20,000 followers.

I still can’t believe it.

I was a nobody, quietly building my e-commerce businesses to $20 million the last 8 years.

I wanted to be wealthy but anonymous.

So, what changed?

Why did I decide to start writing online?

More importantly, what lessons did I learn from this crazy journey?

Here’s the wild story…

I launched my podcast, First Class Founders, on November 2nd, 2022 to crickets.

I had built a strong reputation in the everyday carry & knife community from my first business, my e-commerce shop.

My French bulldog is a prolific content creator (lol) with 150k followers on social media.

So, I thought that I could launch my podcast to a large audience.

Well, I was dead wrong.

Nobody cared about my podcast.

It was my fault... I should have known.

Knife collectors and French bulldog owners could care less about entrepreneurship.

I was devastated.

I had to start over from nothing.

It was frustrating in one sense, but also... refreshing.

I hadn't felt this way since I started my first business back in 2015:

• People dismissing your big ideas.
• People rejecting your requests.
• People ignoring your work.

Those crazy hours you put into your creative work?

Completely wasted.

If you're feeling this way right now, I've been there.

But, I just kept faith in myself and reminded myself to... Just, Keep, Going.

I started to treat the "process" more as a personal journey rather than focusing on what others thought of me.

Once I shifted my perspective, things got a lot easier and ironically, my personal brand started growing with it.

At the start, you need to do the unscalable things - talk to anyone that reaches out to you via DMs, get to know them better.

Your audience's attention is precious.

Be there for them and treat them with respect. I've gotten to know many of my followers and I'm grateful for their support.

The most frustrating realization from my creator journey?

Distribution is more important than product.

I could post the same exact thing as someone who has zero experience in business. Yet, that person's post goes viral. And mine? Silence.

This baffled me at the beginning. How could someone with no business background get more engagement than me when we share the same content

But, here's the truth:

90% of your creator success is based on your relationships with other creators who will boost your content (your product).

In the content game, distribution is the name of the game.

But, the good news?

A creator business is the safest business in the world.

The risk/reward is insane.

You have extremely low overhead cost.

You work on your own terms with no boss.

And, you'll have opportunities knocking on your door once you build an engaged audience.

So, what's the catch?

You must be willing to be patient enough and embrace the "suck" at the start when no one cares about you.

The creator game is about longevity, not "overnight success."

Most new creators will give up simply because they don't see any results within the first few months.

But, just remember:

Your breakthroughs will sprout randomly from unexpected places.

Your job is to keep planting those seeds consistently because you never know when or how those opportunities will find you.

But, trust me... they will come.

You will create your own luck.

That's why I'm building my personal brand.

(And why you should, too!)

Newsletter:

• Subscribers: 6,185

• Open Rate: 38.1%

• Click Rate: 3.16%

👍🏻 Recommendation: Thinking of starting a newsletter? I use and recommend Beehiiv with powerful features like boosts, recommendations, segmentations, automations, and detailed subscriber metrics.

Podcast:

• 90-Day Downloads: 7,465

• 30-Day Downloads: 2,545

• 7-Day Downloads: 613

👍🏻 Recommendation: Best hosting platform for your podcast? I use and recommend Buzzsprout. Get $20 when you sign-up using this link.